Generally, in a communications system, such as a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) compliant communications system, there is a plurality of communications controllers. The plurality of communications controllers serves communications devices by controlling communications to and from the communications devices. Communications controllers may also be commonly referred to as enhanced NodeBs (eNBs), NodeBs, base stations, and the like. Communications devices may also be commonly referred to as user equipments (UEs), mobile stations, users, subscribers, terminals, and the like. As shown in FIG. 1a, a communications system 100 includes an eNB 105, and UEs 110 and 112. Transmissions from eNB 105 to UE 110 are referred to as downlink (DL) transmissions and transmissions from UE 112 to eNB 105 are referred to as uplink (UL) transmissions.
Carrier aggregation (CA) and coordinated multiple point (CoMP) operation have been proposed as techniques to help improve communications performance. In CA, multiple component carriers may be aggregated to support simultaneous transmission to a UE or simultaneous reception from a UE. In CoMP, multiple communications points (or simply, multiple points) may be coordinated to serve a UE. A point may be a transmission point if it is transmitting or a reception point if it is receiving. As an example, two transmission points may individually transmit on different component carriers to a UE, or multiple transmission points may coordinate to transmit to a UE. Similarly, a UE may transmit to multiple reception points on different component carriers, or a UE may transmit to multiple reception points.